Shannon the Cannon
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day five hundred and ninety-nine: Somewhere in Rosalita's Road House, there is one man who calls himself an admirer of Shannon the Cannon.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 28th cycle. Now cycle 29!_

**TOP 16, TAKE 2: **_Okay so a couple cycles back, I did my second 'top of Glee at the moment' cycle. Now since I was still in university and such at the time, those were planned a while back, before the second half of the season every started. This made it that by the time that cycle rolled around I realized that some things had changed... Things were added, removed, bumped up... Point is it didn't really reflect where I was anymore. So I decided 'what the heck, I'll do another one ASAP!' And so here we are :) This is my revised Top 16 (of course I HAD to plan before the finale, so there are still a couple things missing like Samcedes, Unholy Trinity, etc, but let's assume they're there ;) They'll get some love in coming cycles ;)) So off we go!  
><strong>Coming in at number eight...<strong>_

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><p><strong>"Shannon the Cannon"<br>Coach Beiste/OC **

There was something about that place… When she'd found it, suddenly her moving to Lima had become something else. She may have had her job, but those people didn't know or understand her, not at first, and then not all of them. But when she'd found this place, this bar, she knew she could only be among like-minded people. They respected her, and they made her feel appreciated. This was where Shannon the Cannon was born and this was where she made her fame and her joy.

Well it was no wonder then that her name should be praised by many of those who would populate Rosalita's Road House. One of those great 'admirers' of the Cannon had built up that admiration only from afar, unknown by her from any other patron. But he wanted to change that; he wanted to get to know her, to get to be known by her. If he could be a friend, good, great, but if he could be more… Oh, this was a woman who got his heart racing in ways he couldn't explain with any other word that he was enchanted. What he saw, looking at her, was so much heart, bursting from her every which way, and strength along with it, and that was his kind of woman.

Imagine his surprise when he'd sat in the stands out on the McKinley football field, to watch his son's game, and suddenly he heard a familiar voice, out in the distance. He searched for it, expecting to find it somewhere in the stands with him, but then… there she was, out on the sidelines. She was the coach, 'that Beiste woman' as his son Mitch had called her. This was just another reason for him to admire her. The year before, the odds of a victory was so unlikely that he could well have been attending those games only to console his son, but now…

He was discreet in his asking Mitch about her. It had been almost six years now since he had divorced Susan, so he was dating again, which Mitch knew. Still, he didn't want him to connect the dots in that way. He'd never even spoken to the woman face to face, much less asked her out. He was already picturing his son pitching a fit of teenage embarrassment at the idea of his father dating his football coach, so he wasn't going to just cross that bridge if there was nothing to find on the other side… yet.

If he was going to change that at all, then he had to just go ahead and go talk to her. Not many would peg him as the bashful type, least of all him, but now here he was, like a kid trying to ask a girl to dance for the first time… Dance… That was it… When the night was rowdy enough, you could bet the Cannon would join them on that dance floor. Back before he'd started going to Rosalita's, the one time he'd really danced in his life was at his wedding, and that was a good number of years before. But little by little, the Road House had pulled him out of his shell. Now he wasn't exactly a great master – he wasn't what you might call 'agile' - but he got by without hurting anyone, so that was a success. He just hoped Shannon would think so, too.

It just so happened that the very next night he stopped by the Road House, the place was good and loud, which meant she would be there, which meant she would be on the floor, which meant… he had his shot, and he just had to take it. He had a drink in him before he could go out there – courage, loosening the limbs a bit – and then he worked his trajectory toward her. He got misdirected a few times, ending up in just the wrong place, and he feared he might miss…

He landed right in front of her, so suddenly that they both startled, and she looked at him… and she laughed that great laugh of hers. "Sorry, didn't see you there!" she spoke with that smiling voice.

"Oh, no, the fault's all mine," he told her, bowing his head.

"Well let's call it even then!" she settled, and he laughed.

"Works for me! Just to make it official, I'll buy your next round if you buy mine," he offered, finding his way in, again by accident.

"Alright! But we're finishing this dance, first," she pointed her finger at him, and he didn't question her. When the band on stage finished their song, the pair moved toward the bar to collect on their deal. As they sat, she stared at him, like she was trying to figure something out. "Have I seen you before?"

"Well, I'm here a few times a week," he started, and she nodded with vague recall, "But also I've been told I'm the spitting image of my son, or, he is, of me," he explained, and she sat up, realizing.

"You're Mitch Henley's father," she declared, and he nodded, offering his hand.

"Richard Henley, friends call me Rich."

"What am I calling you?" she asked, and he had to try not to smile too hard.

"Oh you can call me whatever you want, though I'll hope you'd call me Rich."

"Rich," she nodded.

"And what am I calling you?" he wondered.

"I have more names than I know what to do with," she started, chuckling. "Shannon the Cannon, Beiste, Coach… the Panther," she smirked with pride, and he wondered if he was grinning like a fool yet.

"I think I'll go with Shannon," he held his glass up and she clinked it with hers.

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******

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><p><strong><strong><strong>PS: I'm going to work to find a way to make a list available of the various series, I just need to find a way to make the link available, since this site seems to have an issue with putting links to stuff ;)<strong>****


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